Laramie is a Western place name: the city, river and mountains in Wyoming are named after Jacques La Ramee, a French Canadian fur trapper of the early 1800s. His surname is usually connected with the French ramee, a bower of "leafy branches". The name shares the open-country feel of Cheyenne and Dakota and has risen sharply in the United States, from number 6148 in 2015 to number 1088 in 2025, its best rank so far.